


Finding Your Voice

by SleepyKalena



Series: The "Pleasant Memories" Archives [1]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: (they had to start SOMEWHERE right?), (with more additions to polish the ficlet), Droid Appreciation Week, Ficlet, Free Will and Agency, Gen, He means well though, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Pre-Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-21 23:39:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15568914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepyKalena/pseuds/SleepyKalena
Summary: As Cassian attempts to find a new voice module for the newly re-programmed K2SO to use, K2 challenges him on what it means to be free now that he's no longer under strict Imperial programming.





	Finding Your Voice

**Author's Note:**

> [Originally posted on Tumblr](https://sleepykalena.tumblr.com/post/171278230843/do-you-think-when-cassain-reprogrammed-k-2so-he), based on the following meta:
> 
> _**boxofcharmingghosts:** do you think when Cassain reprogrammed K-2SO he gave him a new voice or do all Imperial KX-series security droids have a snarky Alan Tudyk voice ??_   
>  _**ruby-red-inky-blue:** I really like to think he tinkered with the voice settings, maybe just giving him a slightly different pitch - clearly he wanted Kay to have personality (hence the sarcasm)_
> 
> Thank you both for giving me this lovely headcanon- I've taken the original ficlet and made some adjustments and additions in light of Droid Appreciation Week, but lbr this ficlet wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you two <3

“Cassian. My voice is acceptable as-is,” K2SO spoke in a low, gravely, warbled voice. Despite the obvious insistence, K2 sounded factual rather than persuasive.

Cassian didn’t look up from his datapad as he kept scrolling through different voice options. “I want to make sure people hear your voice and realize that you’re not actually part of the Empire anymore.” As he continued to filter through possible firmware options to install on K2′s system, he sighed- half out of boredom, half out of frustration. “All of these options are so…bare,” he muttered, shaking his head in disapproval.

“This voice is the bare minimum of accepted standards for communicating with Imperial officers,” K2 said. “There is no need to install new vocal firmware.”

“Wouldn’t you prefer to speak more like an organic sentient?”

“I am a droid,” K2 responded with the same level, robotic warble. “Speaking like an organic sentient carries no benefit.”

Cassian tilted his head, ready to respond in an affronted manner, but he stopped short of opening his mouth and reminded himself that the droid likely meant no offense in saying that. “Tonal range allows you to express more than words alone,” he explained, setting the datapad down on the work station. The cables leading up to the base of K2′s skull tugged and swayed slightly at the motion. “I reprogrammed you to free you from Imperial programming; wouldn’t you prefer to have the freedom to communicate with a larger range of emotion?”

K2 paused, his halo lights flickering in calculation.

The calculations concluded, and his eyes stabilized again to a solid, blue-white light. “Your choice to reprogram me, much less your insistence that my voice must be changed, is not indicative of the freedom you claim I have.”

Cassian stiffened, realizing the weight of the words from the newly re-programmed Imperial droid.

“If anything,” K2 continued, “it only demonstrates that you are a new master, a loss of freedom under a different guise. Instead of ‘Imperial programming,’ you would effectively put me under ‘Alliance programming’.”

The droid was met with complete silence as the man next to him stared up into his optics with surprise. But although Cassian was clearly caught off-guard with his statement, K2 found it difficult to determine if Cassian was upset with him for saying it; his mouth managed to remain as neutral as possible, refraining from any connotation behind his surface-level expression. He leaned back on his chair once more, arms crossing, and he took a deep sigh, but he still remained quiet.

It was actually starting to unnerve the droid. The last time he spoke up to someone and caught them by surprise like this, he was quickly ushered to the “Diagnostics and Re-Programming Facility,” an obvious euphemism for something more sinister, and he was subjected to things he’d rather not search his memory for again, _ever_.

He ran another calculation as he continued to study Cassian’s posture.

_Likelihood of being sent somewhere similar to a Diagnostics and Re-Programming Facility-_

“You’re right,” Cassian chuckled softly, smirking, amused at how quickly the tables had turned on him. “Alright;  _would you like to have your firmware changed_ so that you can have a different voice? You can even pick the voice for yourself, if you want.”

K2 didn’t need to make as many calculations to respond to Cassian’s offer: “I would like to change my voice.”

The voice K2 decided on wasn’t an incredibly huge change in tone- it was still low and droll, but the waveforms were less jagged, processing through the speakers instead like streamers in a gentle breeze.

Occasionally, however, there would be a minor change in the way his vocal firmware operated- a spike, so to speak, controlled freely by the droid himself, normally made present when he had something particularly snarky to say.

“Cassian, I dare say this suits my personality quite well,” K2 marveled as Cassian removed the cables from his head.

Cassian huffed in amusement as he tidied up his workstation. “You started off so rigid; suddenly you say you have a personality?”

The strange, quirky spike in his waveform popped up for the first time when he responded with, “I have more of a personality than you do, from what I’ve observed since we first met.”

It really _was_ freeing to say something like that and not expect to be sent out for a diagnostics check.

As Cassian laughed and knocked roughly on his chassis for the verbal jab, K2 filed their interaction in his archives, the first of what would soon be many “Pleasant Memories”.


End file.
